*sighs* These articles are interesting and good, but at the same time a bit depressing. I think it is a lot like being a prodigy. It's not that you lose your abilities, but you have gone from being the youngest person to do x, y, or z, to a heterogeneous environment with lots of age ranges where eventually you don't stand out so much.
You've really hit the nail on the head here. Giftedness doesn't disappear, it's just harder to find it because the way its measured disappears for the most part once you leave the school environment.
This is one reason why so many gifted adults get lost - they have a hard time seeing their own giftedness once they reach the workforce because of the way it was accentuated earlier in their lives, and they don't have as many opportunities to show it or use it either. Strangely enough, many employers, even though they may think they want innovative people to work with them, actually discourage innovation. So where does that leave all of the amazingly creative and innovative gifted adults?
